Winning Formula

Since moving to the USA in 2007, a vast majority of my time has been spent working within youth development. It's transpired into somewhat of a labor of love, such is the connections you make with the players & families, but also that yearning to constantly enhance your program or find a new area to work on. Unlike many other countries the American youth system has imprinted a pay to play model, which has afforded me the opportunity to work for the football club in a full time capacity. I think debating the pros & cons of this model is one for another day, but regardless of your stance on the financial implications, the work between the white lines is something that we have to work on if there is to be a prosperous future for the US. In this piece I intend to challenge the impact of game coaching performance & how our valuation of winning may be contributing to prolonged mediocrity.

There have been times during tenure in the states that I've scratched my head & thought "Why does this coach bother to do this?" Don't get me wrong, I'd thought this in England & Scotland before arriving on these shores, but in a world where many coaches do this for a living, surely you'd at least try and enjoy what you're doing? The furrowed brow....the clenched fists....the overly aggressive wrenched tone in their voice...sure we all have bad days, but does the performance of a youth player cause that much anger? Perhaps if it does there are more issues with the coaches mental state than that of a 12 year olds lack of ball control. Put simply children get scared of angry adults, and when operating with any element of fear performance is flawed. Below I've painted a few chain reaction cycles, that playout on teams across the country on a weekly basis.

Scenario 1

- Coach works on playing out of the back in practice

- Player loses ball in the back, resulting in a goal

- Coach screams at the player for losing the ball

- In an attempt to please the coach the player reverts to kicking the ball away from danger when near pressure. The teams chances of building possession drops.

Scenario 2

- Coach works on creative moves on the ball in practice

- Player loses the ball in 1v1 situation.

- Coach tells player to keep it simple.

- In an attempt to please the coach the Player reverts to passing the ball whenever he is confronted with a defender.

- When said player is an attacking position with only 1 defender to beat, he is ill-prepared to confront his opponent and attempt to score.

It's obvious that as coaches we spend more contact time with our players during practices but often, & especially so with younger players, their recollection of a game day is far higher. Therefore what we say during games can have a massive impact on how players see the game & form self-images. Coaches are human beings, we have emotions, we get carried away....it's natural. However we are being tasked as educators in this endeavor, so we have to condense everything into a learning experience, and fuel the players willingness to improve not simply focus on error reduction. If our players resorted to screaming at their teammates whenever a mistake was made, it would probably lead to a pretty toxic situation....a lack of responsibility, no co-hesion & a lack of trust within each other. Think now how this translates into a players perception of being yelled at by the coach? What does that do to their confidence & willingness to be creative? If we are to herald a new dawn of technically gifted & tactically astute players we have to breathe life into every player we work with. From there we have to give them a platform upon which to choose their own path to excellence, a destination many of whom may never get close to. That said we must provide them an opportunity, and not complicate the journey with overly critical language that suppresses development.

Perhaps the largest grey area in youth football is when performance overtakes development. I'm not entirely sure there is an age group we can say that across the board "THIS" is when the focus should shift, but in my own opinion I believe its inextricably linked to what the coach values. It would be simple to equate winning as a by-product of positive development, but at what cost? It's unrealistic to think every win is a flawless display of fluent attacking football, so surely we can derive some factors within a loss as a degree of development? There are areas within the building phases of the game, such as playing out of the back, where the % of error is very high. Therefore players tread the fine line of being creative with the risk of losing a goal. If our players never dance that dance, how then will they solve a similar problem in other areas of the field? My concern with the value of winning is not in the outcome itself, but how coaches evaluate the process in which they have arrived at the result. A rigid, one dimensional & negative style of play can buy you victories in youth football, but what does this really do for your group of players? If youth players sole focus is to come away with a win, are we providing them with an opportunity to develop as a footballer? Some would argue the world of a professional footballer is to live & die by their results, so perhaps the mindset is one that needs to be introduced at a younger age to fully evolve. Even with this loose veil clouding our judgement, there's a part of this that just doesn't sit right with me. In our formal education we are taught to value the process, read up on subjects to become a more learned individual & enter a test environment fully immersed. It would seem that sometimes in youth football we value the process as optional, almost disregarding how we get there....just make sure you win.

I don't think I'm the 1st nor will I be the last to assume there is a correlation between this attitude & the lack of top level players who are being produced in America. That being said I personally believe it forms a small part of a larger culture that surrounds the game in this country, one that is looking beyond what is really important & being short sighted as to what vanity would value. Accolades tells us little about ability, after all we select our teams based on performance not on amount of games won in their career. Why then would we suddenly grade a teams success by a similar equation? Better yet, why would a youth coaches strength be based on the amount of titles he has accumulated? Many would proclaim it's what we perceive to be successful that needs to change, as the quality of football that is displayed on our fields continues to plod along without any real change. If we are to really drive standards we as coaches have to set the tone & set about shifting the "win at all costs" mentality & truly value high quality football as our goal.

A very important figure in my career once told me "You get the team you deserve in football" and it's something that's always stuck with me. If I work hard, value style over substance, be logical & imprint a vision, my players will react in accordance to this. We have to accept the fact this may not result in a winning season each year, but by reaching a higher level of development we have already achieved success. As coaches & educators our task is to make players better, not lift silverware. Take a moment this week to set your players some tangible goals....higher % of completed passes, higher shot completion, higher cross completion....achieving success in these areas should be the only medals we need worry about.